INTERHEART study. International study suggests the“presence of of psychosocial stressors is associated with increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, suggesting that approaches aimed at modifying these factors should be developed.

Literature review. Depression confers a relative risk between 1.5 and 2.0 for the onset of CAD in healthy individuals, whereas depression in patients with existing CAD confers a relative risk between 1.5 and 2.5 for cardiac morbidity and mortality.

“It is concluded that depression predicts the development of CHD in initially healthy people. The stronger effect size for clinical depression compared to depressive mood points out that there might be a dose-response relationship between depression and CHD. Implications of the findings for a broader bio-psycho-social framework are discussed.”

“Compared with respondents with no history of dysphoria, the odds ratio for MI associated with a history of dysphoria was 2.07 (95% CI, 1.16 to 3.71), and the odds ratio associated with a history of major depressive episode was 4.54 (95% CI, 1.65 to 12.44), independent of coronary risk factors.”

o preliminary results suggest that an episode of anger is associated with a dysregulation in endothelium-dependent and -independent pathways, suggesting that these mechanisms might contribute to the link between anger and coronary heart disease events.

“Findings indicate being married per se is not universally beneficial, rather, the satisfaction and support associated with such a relationship is important. However, marriage may be distinctive, as evidence further suggests that support from one's network does not compensate for the effect of being single.”